What's going on in Grades 3 & 4?

On the 19th of May, it is the 18th year for the National Walk Safely to School Day (WSTDS). We will be leaving from O’Neil road and heading to school approximately 8:30am. We would love to see as many students possible attending this walk.

The objectives of WSTSD are:
• To encourage parents and carers to walk to school with primary school age children and reinforce safe pedestrian behaviour.
• To promote the health benefits of walking and help create regular walking habits at an early age.
• To ensure that children up to 10 years old hold an adult’s hand when crossing the road.
• To help children develop the vital road-crossing skills they will need as they become mature pedestrians.
• To reduce the car dependency habits that are being created at an early age and which will be difficult to change as children become adults.
• To promote the use of Public Transport.
• To reduce the level of air pollution created by motor vehicles.
• To reduce the level of traffic congestion.

Congratulations to all the grade 3-6 students who represented the school in Friday’s District Cross Country. Everyone put in their best effort and quite a few students will be moving on to Division in a few weeks time.

Congratulations to Luke, Kye, Ella, Kayla, Kiera, Rhylee, Claire and Shayla who received medals for finishing in the top 3 of their age group. Overall, our school finished 1st in the district, amazing job everyone!

On Sunday the 30th of May Beaconsfield Primary School’s Human Powered Vehicle team entered 3 teams in the Knox HPV Grand Prix. The event was a 6 hour endurance relay held at the State Basketball Centre in Wantirna South. Storm and Ironman were entered in the Junior Secondary Open class and Rogue was entered in the Community Open class.

Storm was powered by a small team of riders; 4 from Beaconsfield PS, Ryan DL, Arthur W, Riley M, Casey A and Finn W who is now at secondary school. Ironman was ridden by 6 students from our school; Kai S, Hunter F, Jeremey L, Mitchel K, Steven R and Ethan P. Rogue was our parents and friends HPV once again and also had 6 riders, Stuart C, Trent W, Nicholas C, Liam D, Jason M and Anthony C.

Storm completed 121 laps to WIN their class by 9 laps. Their best lap was a 2:08:01 minutes with an average lap time of 2:42:54 minutes. Great riding boys! Ironman finished on 98 laps and placed 4th in their class. Another great result when the age and experience of the team is taken into consideration. Their best lap was a 2:31:16 minutes with an average lap time of 3:19:99 minutes. Rogue finished 4th in its class on 113 laps. Their best lap was a 2:11:08 minutes with an average lap time of 2:52:81 minutes.

All the students rode very well with a number of riders making their race debut. This was a tight technical track and some of our riders learned how important holding our line and staying to the left is when sharing a track with faster HPVs. Ironman had 1 roll over with only a bruise on the arm as a result which is a great testament to the safety of our designs. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to chase Ryan DL for 5 laps in the middle of the race and while I could close the gap on the uphill sections of the track, I could only watch and admire his skill as he pulled away from me though the corners of the downhill sections.

I would like to thank all the parents and friends for their help with the many jobs that need to be completed in order to make a HPV team run smoothly. It was great to see the experienced parents passing on their knowledge to our newer members and so many people willing to learn on the job. Well done everyone.

If you are interested in more detailed results from the race they can be found at http://my5.raceresult.com/72546/?lang=en# . More pictures from the day can be found on face book at ‘Victorian HPV Series’. Please note these are public sites and are not moderated by Beaconsfield Primary School.

Should any students and families be interested in joining the HPV team please contact Mr Cole for further information. Please note that riders must be 10 years of age and demonstrate an ability to ride safely before being allowed to race. Mr Cole will be at the school open day this Saturday 13th of May and have the HPVs out on the basketball court.

Our next race will be the Bendigo HPV Grand Prix to be held in August. A reminder to team members that the expression on interest form for this race are due by 17th of May.